In a significantly overdeveloped Caribbean, tiny Barbuda– the under-the-radar, 62-square-mile brother or sister of the better-known Antigua– feels like a place out of time.
Getting there belongs to the appeal: the island’s season runs from November through July, and however brief charter flights are readily available from Antigua, most visitors make the journey by means of a 90-minute ferry trip. Days are spent kayaking or paddleboarding among the mangroves, bird-watching at the frigate-bird sanctuary, and relaxing on the pink-sand beaches.
It’s this sense of privacy and connection to the land that made Robert De Niro, who first visited 30 years earlier, fall in love with Barbuda. And it’s what influenced De Niro and his partners to open Nobu Barbuda, the most recent Caribbean outpost of the Japanese-Peruvian dining establishment brand name on Princess Diana Beach in December 2020. (She famously vacationed on the island several times.) Nobu’s signature black miso cod is among the draws, but guests can also reserve private cabanas with butler service at the beach club, included January 2022, or delight in a six-course omakase experience at sunset.
Now De Niro’s group is taking things to brand-new heights with Nobu Beach Inn. While the complete home– which will have 2- and three-bedroom bungalows, each with its own private pool and most with direct beach access– is arranged to open in 2025, a two-bedroom cottage is open for VIP Nobu Barbuda guests this season, by invitation only.
Other modifications are slowly coming to Barbuda. Prepare for a new worldwide airport are under method (the existing Codrington Airport, which was harmed by Hurricane Irma in 2017, is serviced by private jets, charter flights, and helicopters), and an 18-hole golf course is under construction.
However for now, the island retains its unwinded atmosphere. There are no mega-resorts, but instead, a set of away-from-it all, family-run sanctuaries. Barbuda Cottages has actually 8 rental properties perched on stilts over the sugar-white sands at Coral Group Bay, a crescent beach that’s frequently empty. Barbuda Belle Luxury Beach Hotel, a solar-powered beachfront residential or commercial property with 8 similar homes that were built in Bali, also has actually a delightfully disconnected feel.
De Niro hopes the arrival of the Nobu inn will introduce others to the privacy and neighborhood spirit of Barbuda that he first felt decades earlier. “This job holds a special location in my heart,” he informed T+L. “I want it to be that unforgettable location that individuals come back to every year.”